Maiden in Red

You were currently trying to kill yourself.

Cold, rusty metal pressed itself to your throat, cutting slightly into the flesh there and rubbing, the sawing motion coming from your shaky balance irritating your skin like nothing else. In the end, you supposed, it didn't matter, you were going for the kill anyway.

Although, balanced on a metal dolly and desperately trying to fit your neck against the iron of some ages old torture device, it wasn't going well so far. The odd metal frame you were currently trying to hang yourself with looked as though it were supposed to fit an entire person snuggly inside of it, and it was bolted fast to the stone brick ceiling. You had decided not to analyze what exactly it was for, instead opting to find the quickest way out.

This was it.

Waking up in the dungeon room with only the odd cage for company, you had immediately been baffled about what happened while you were unconscious. Last you could remember, you had been heading to the castle in order to traverse the forests surrounding it to look for some herbs the Duke had told you to get. You'd wandered a bit close, that was true, but you still didn't understand how you'd gotten here.

Nonetheless, you were here and you knew what that meant. Young girls went missing all the time at Castle Dimitrescu, sometimes they were girls that worked there and sometimes they weren't. Either way, you were fairly certain you had just figured out where they all went.

Glancing to the side, you anxiously eyed a bundle strung up on the ceiling beyond the bars of your cell. You could very clearly see the face of a man, a generous portion of his lower body missing, and you were fairly certain you could see many masses just like him in the background. The deathly pallor of his slack face did nothing to detract from the look of excruciating pain and terror that was frozen across his features. No way were you going out like that.

So, suicide it was.

Balancing on top of the metal cart, stacked high with syringes and petri dishes, you could only hope that the fall would either kill you instantly or suffocate you slowly, your least favorite outcome was to wind up with an infected cut on your neck and still have to go through whatever tortures the Dimitrescu women had in store for you.

'Speak of the devil...', you thought miserably. Somebody had just opened a door, a heavy one by the sound of it, in another section of the dungeon. It was time to make your exit.

Internally, you said a quick prayer to Mother Miranda and a goodbye to your parents and siblings. You would be missed, that you were sure of, but there were so many others to take care of at home, you could only hope your loss would not cripple the family entirely.

Quietly, you extended one foot so it was just your left keeping you on the cart, held aloft and with your throat above the iron. You hesitated. Heels clicked down the hallway.

You launched the other foot into the air as well, your neck slamming painfully down on the edge of the metal. Immediately, your feet were moving, instinctively looking for land and kicking into the rest of the metal skeleton, crashes ringing through the dungeon. You were choking.

Not dying though.

With nothing anchoring you to the earth, the entire weight of your body fell on your neck, the thick metal beneath it immediately sinking in and cutting flesh, blood smearing around your skin as you thrashed in the air. Automatically a hand reached up to clutch at the cage, trying to pull your body weight up off of your neck, only succeeding slightly, enough air to keep you conscious was now passing through your lungs.

Shit.

"Oh... my god," A woman's voice rang through the dungeon, bursting into laughter soon after at the sight that met her.